[Institution Title]
- INTRODUCTION
Taiwan is a beautiful island located at the western part of the Pacific Ocean. It is easy to access from other cities and within 1-3 hours with airplane rides from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, Peking and Tokyo. Apart from its beautiful scenery, Taiwan also has diverse culture and gourmet. The Taiwanese government is highly active and heavily motivated for promoting development of leisure and tourism industry.
Accommodation for tourists is the most important and basic need for them. Therefore, hotel management and development has become a crucial issue in the hotel industry (Wang. et al). With the rapid growth of tourism and hospitality industry in Taiwan has led to increase in demand for labour. In response to this increasing demand, there are many tourism and hospitality programs in Taipei to keep pace with the increasing demand of the industry (Lu, 1999). Also, Taipei hotel industry faces immense environmental challenges in coming years. For instance, with soaring popularity of hot spring lodges and leisure farming has increased competition in the city’s hotel industry, and some five-star luxury international hotels have changed their strategies better to compete in the current environment (Lee, Yang & Chen, 2013). Impact of tourist perception, satisfaction on brand image has been one of the most researched topics in the tourism category. This study is the analysis of the attributes, components and factors that involve brand image affect on customer satisfaction in the city of Taipei in its hotel industry.
Purpose of the study
The paper aims at exploring the interrelations between brand image and customer satisfaction. The hotel industry contributes highly to development and growth of Taipei. One of the most important contemporary challenges of the hotel industry is providing customer service quality for satisfaction and maintaining their customer base.
Despite the highly focused academic interest in the customer satisfaction, this study would contribute by adding to the Taipei hostel industry. Also, there is no study available at present that has explored the topic of how brand image affects customer satisfaction in the hotel industry based in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. Customers get satisfied with getting rooms and suites in hotels. It is imperative in this study to explore how hotels can work effectively and efficiently in the city of Taipei to gain customer satisfaction. This research is limited to only hotel industry based out of Taipei, and since the overall tourists had not reached 5 million until 2008, government still endeavours in pushing and promoting tourism in Taipei. Since the beginning of 2010, the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan has seen great improvement as there are many tourists coming over to visit the capital city of Taiwan.
Rationale
Brand image is the essential factor in helping to retain customer. Brand image also plays a crucial role in satisfaction of the present customers. The perception of customer regarding the features of product and service offered at hotels is influenced by their perception about the brand and it’s branding. The main aim of brand and product management is building stronger brand image that would help in generating huge short-term and long-term profit for the hotels.
Considering the relationship between customer and a hotel, there seems to be a strong relationship between brand image and satisfaction. The effect of brand image is by far higher in comparison to another brand equity component while choosing hotels.
Research questions
A questionnaire survey can be used to obtain the results of the relationship between brand image and customer satisfaction. A pilot study on the basis of 100 questionnaires from a chain hotel and a boutique hotel’s visitors in the city of Taipei can help in achieving the results of this study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Branding
Branding is a complete process of creating brand image in consumers’ minds, and the purpose of branding is to attract the customers through communication differentiated features. Branding differentiate service or products in multiple ways. Branding includes the creation of mental structure of customers and helping them in organizing their knowledge about corporation, sevice or product. Branding involves addition of higher level of functional and emotional meaning to the company, service or product, and the aim is to increase the value to stakeholders. Branding is the dominant trend in the global industry of hotel. In the hotel industry, employees’ core capabilities and competencies are the factors that differentiate organizations and are the most important factors that contribute in cooperate branding. Branding is communicated as a way to differentiate services or products from competitors (Dandis, 2009).
The trend of branding increased due to several reasons. It serves with multiple benefits such as customers can search cost and perceive risks. However, brand owners receive the benefits of charging premium price over competitors, able to reduce the cost of marketing, able to gain market share as compared to competitors. Branding plays immense role in hotel industry through building strong brand image that enhances the trust of customers, enable them to understand the invisible factors, reduce customers’ perceived safety, social and financial risk (Kayaman & Arasli, 2007).
According to diverse hotel executives, brand equity is an important source of strategic advantage. In order to increase the brand equity hotels increase their services and products that in return increase the revenue of hotels. Brand perception, awareness, and the customers’ satisfaction are the factors brand’s value is dependent upon. Due to these behaviours managers tend to formulate branding strategies that can make a significant impact on customer retention. It has been identified that well organized brand can gain larger market share, and branding plays an immense role in the organization of brand, therefore, in profitability. Branding benefits organizations in such way that strong brand awareness and high recognition of brand increase the rate of turnover, slow down the cost of sales, and lead the company towards higher sales and revenues. Due to the increased realization of the brand value, branding has become the priority of managers.
The most interesting and unique feature of branding research is a major focus on brand image’s aspects that do not include benefits or tangible attributes, and physical features. Intangibles cover wide range of services that contribute in differentiating the one brand from others. Managers use verity of branding activities in order to build and attain desired brand equity and brand positioning. Band is more than a name and brand elements such as logos, packaging, symbols, and slogans play a critical role of branding. In order to be successful, companies use different branding strategies such as co-branding, global branding, and sub-branding. Sub-branding strategy helps in setting the expectations of consumers (Keller & Lehmann, 2005).
Brand image
A brand image is an impression on consumer’s minds on how they perceive an organization according to Ormeño, (2007). The image gets developed over time through advertisements or social responsibilities with a consistent subject. It reflects on issues such as brand name, communication styles, logos or other graphical components that clients observe. Brand image has become a routine in the research studies of consumer behaviour. Several studies have been reported in past years related to the brand image, and the usage of this phrase has been encountered in several casual and technical applications. In marketing literature, immense importance is given to this factor and in order to improve the brand image companies improve their marketing activities that are based on strategic positioning.
Branded products are purchased due to the good functioning and most of the time for communicating the status and for the purpose of showing status branded products are purchase more in developing countries are compared to developed. Branded products, exposed on media, are perceived as the best quality due to international exposure (Cheng et al., 2007). It has been encountered in multiple studies that brand image building is the result of customer experience that is associated with services and goods and marketing communication. Brand image and customer satisfaction are related to each other (Suhartanto, 2011). Khan (2013) finds the factors that have influence on customer retention in the hotel industry. Total seven variables have been taken as independent, and customer retention has been taken as predicted variable. According to the research result, there is no significant relation among brand image and customer retention. If customers have positive brand image businesses will able to retain the customers, brand image is built through positive communication and good quality of goods and services.
Koubaa (2008) examined the impact of the information of the country of origin on brand image and brand perception. He examined that brand image is multidimensional the structure vary according to the country of origin and brand. Country of origin is an important factor that has influence on brand image. There are several factors that work behind the brand image for example; brand awareness is positively associated with brand image. Brand image is what presently exists in the mind of customers. It has been acknowledged that advertising that the brand has been developed for particular target market weakens the image of the brand.
Customer satisfaction
The degree to which a product or a service satisfies customer refers to customer satisfaction. The satisfaction gets geared by consistency of products and services offered by the corporation. With the growing numbers of customers, it is essential for the hotel management that what factors are contributing in customer satisfaction in order to retain them and increase the profitability. Factors that contribute in customer satisfaction vary according to hotels (Li, Ye, & Law, 2013). In recent era, customer satisfaction has become the major part of concerns and causes to gauge the attention of researchers and professionals. Customer satisfaction has an immense impact on business performance and behaviours of customers. Providing and maintaining customer satisfaction is amongst the biggest challenges.
Customer satisfaction is considered as a key point in differentiating the product from rivals and in the creation of competitive advantage; this is the factor that contributes in customer retention. Good service quality is amongst the major factors that contributes in and lead to higher customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the best indicator on whether a client will make repetitive purchases of product/service in the future according to Goldstein, (2009). If an organization is always greeting new customers daily and does not happen to welcome back the regular customers, there is an indication that satisfaction level is short term as indicated by Szwarc (2005). In some cases, even the satisfied customers will leave the firm once a competitor offers a better package. Retaining clients, therefore, in this instance means, one has to worry about what to give and surprise customers with tomorrow and not focusing on the good services offered yesterday (Szwarc, 2005).
Hayes, (2008), states that, an organization should note when clients flock to purchase a product or service simply because it is on offer. Clients can come back again and again, not because the product is satisfactory, but because of current services offered. Once the offer is gone, it is easy for the clients to exit the market. What will retain the client is that if the firm is able to get to customers and inquired about what they expect tomorrow and meeting those expectations. In this case, the satisfaction level will make the client stick to the firm irrespective of the attractive packages offered by competitors (Goldstein, 2009).
A satisfied customer will shop for a better option and when it presents itself, the client quits. If a customer gets satisfied, the firm will notice a decrease in customer exits and complaints (Hayes, 2008). Satisfied customers portray the subsequent behaviour of retention even in a competitive industry. As denoted earlier by Goldstein, (2009), retention of a customer gets hatched by the responsiveness of the firm to their needs and problems. Therefore, customer satisfaction is an important factor, not in the hotel industry only, but also in other sectors (Holjevac, Markovic & Raspor, 2010).
Geetika & Nandan (2010) conducted a research in which, service quality has been treated as predictor and customer satisfaction has been taken and predicted variable. In this research, it has been examined that service quality evaluation leads to consumer satisfaction in the tourism industry. Factors are different in diverse sectors that lead to customer satisfaction such as in railway, reliability and responsiveness; in bus transportation, availability of seats and time; in full moving service companies, packing service and insurance claim and so on. Customer satisfaction in the hotel industry is increased through the performance of housekeeping services, food and beverages, lower prices, and reception services (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2000).
Relationship between brand image and customer satisfaction
During advertisements, potential customers get exposed to actualities formed by the firm and they consciously or unconsciously pick facts that well match their configurations of attitudes and beliefs and retain them in the memory. When a firm is brought into the attention of the client, the perceived facts get retrieved from the memory to help reconstruct an image of the firm (Goldstein, 2009). The facts can either be negative or positive depending on the firm’s previous actions. If the experience happens to be negative, the consumer turns down the product/service offered by the firm immediately according to Szwarc, (2005). Positive experience will draw consumers back to the organization irrespective of competition pressure from other firms.
Reputation is highly related to the product quality and prices offered by a firm. According to Witzel, (2010), reputation acts as a reflective mirror of the firm’s history and acts as a communication tool to the targeted clients. Reputation provides a firm with information on the quality of products and services it offers in comparison to the competitors in the market.
Meierer (2011) further denotes that, reputation indicates the ability of an organization in meeting the expectations of the clients other than those of itself. If a firm is credible enough, according to Meierer (2011) it will do what it had promised its clients to do. For instance, acting on customer’s feedback to improve the quality at a reduced price will win good reputation of the firm. If the client gets dissatisfied with a service/product, the belief that the firm will rectify the product in nearby time as it always does will retain him/her.
Brand image has a significant impact on customer satisfaction (Andreassen & Lindestad 1998). Satisfied customers make repetitive purchase, do not consider price as compare to quality, contribute in building positive brand image through positive word of mouth, therefore, and make a significant contribution in the bottom line of profit. Brand image is a perceived idea of a product and service in consumer’s mind that can be positive and negative. Brand image has positive significant relationship with customer satisfaction, and it has been encountered that positive brand image has a positive impact on customer satisfaction (Malik, 2012). However, if the brand image is negative it will not contribute in customer satisfaction.
Ormeño (2007) denotes that, human factors in an organization have got an impact on the image of the firm. The factors include the attitude of employees and their performance in servicing clients. When the human components portray a negative image, the negativity gets reflected in the image of the company. Later, the clients claim that the services offered are of poor quality and perceive the organization in that form (Ormeño, 2007). It is therefore the responsibility of a firm to ensure that employees portray positive attitude when serving clients so as to improve their satisfaction level.
Functional and technical components applied by a firm in offering products or services create a certain image of the firm, which determines the satisfaction level of consumers according to Witzel, (2010). If a firm for instance, applies modern technology in offering services, consumer satisfaction is likely to go higher. With this in mind, clients will always associate the quality of a service with that organization. The advertisement and promotional programs offered by a firm as well determines the satisfaction level of customer. Good advertisement and promotion techniques increase awareness of the product/service to the clients. The information enables a client to understand the product well and this implies that the communication mechanisms are correct (Meierer, 2011).
An organization needs to understand that, sometimes, consumers do not care on the actual product that organizations offer as much as on the process that accompanies the delivery of the product as denoted by Goldstein (2009). Satisfaction levels precedents favourable assessment of the firm’s image by the clients. Higher satisfaction levels lead to good brand image.
Hotel trends in Taipei
Hotel trends feature a new class of services offered in the hotel industry in order to attract and retain clients in the organization. One significant trend observed in 2014 is the introduction of wellness rooms. Issue of wellness rooms is not new in the industry, but, hotels have introduced dedicated wellness rooms. The service allows clients to have a selection of staying in allergy friendly rooms. It supports health and wellbeing of clients by removing 99% of allergies in the room (Conrady, Buck, Viehl, & Tittel, 2011). Introduction of free WIFI in the hotels is as well an emerging trend in the hotel industry. Initially, customers received Internet services at a fee a fact that frustrated the clients. Hotels have introduced free WIFI in the rooms though in some hotels, other services are constantly going up with decreased Internet charges.
According to Reid, & Bojanic, (2010), travel review is also an upcoming trend in the hotels. The firms have developed unique programs to solicit reviews from their guests. Others send thank you emails to clients and ask them to comment on what was popular during their visit. All this is done in order to improve the brand of the hotel. Additionally, the hotels are getting renovated for improved image of wellness. The rooms and lobbies are getting renovated together with the food service. The action is to give clients a new look of what they received before and have an urge to experience new services.
Taipei hotel trends have steered the tremendous growth in income generation from tourism activities. The common trends found in Taipei include, private parties, creation of tenant mix in order to enhance the shopping experience and hotels offering different rooms for both hip-hop and electronic music. Lot of space, loud music, lots of dances and bright lights are current trends witnessed in Taiwan hotel industry (Crook, 2010). The Taipei trends are quite different from the rest of the world in that, compared to other industries in western countries; visitors prefer serene hotels that offer relaxation environment. What gets witnessed in Taipei is quite different as the hotels get characterized by parties, loud hip-hop music, dances and luxury goods. The services are the interpretation of cultures practiced in Taiwan and Asian communities (Setton, 2011).
- Chain hotel and boutique hotel
The concept of hotel chains originated from the dawn of globalization and the introduction of commercialism. In fact, while hotels have previously been set-up as individual and independent from other subsidiaries, the need for expansion initiated the growth of hotels and creation of franchisees, subsidiaries and chains of ownership. In the paper presented to the EF International Language School of Brisbane, authors Vincent Das and Patrick De Groote opened with an elaborate definition of what a hotel and a hotel chain is all about. In the article, the authors defined a hotel as “a traditional, commercially run form of accommodation in which one, as a tourist (interpreted in the widest sense) can find shelter, even if food and drink are not available on the premises” (Das & De Groote, 2010, p.2). The World Travel Dictionary define hotel as “an establishment providing accommodation and meals and would be expected to provide a greater and/or superior range of facilities than establishments such as guest houses” (English, 1999, p.256). Drawing from the definitions provided by Das and De Groote, a hotel chain can be defined “as group of hotels owned by the same person(s) or organisation(s)” (Das & De Groote, 2010, p.2). A boutique hotel on the other hand, may be defined “as a type of establishment used for the purpose of living accommodation with at least 10 to 100 rooms, which often contain luxury facilities” .
Pick a best case study which was also research on the same topic (Effect of customer satisfaction on brand image) but in different place or country, summarise the case.
The case should have the same definitions of brand image and customer satisfaction or same factors in BI and CS like I mentioned in the details document. Also, In that case study: How about their questionnaire design?
Synthesis
Brand image and customer satisfaction are the contents of one package. The literature review above has indicated that, the perceived product quality and perceived price fairness affect the clients’ purchase decisions in any industry.
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